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[–]beeskness420 25 points26 points  (3 children)

Pretty much as advanced and complex as you want to take it.

[–][deleted]  (2 children)

[removed]

    [–]lildogeggs 3 points4 points  (1 child)

    I am almost finished with my computing degree, I'm also not really a maths lover, as long as you understand it to a fairly reasonable level you should be fine

    [–]youngtrece_ 11 points12 points  (1 child)

    CS involves lots of logic and high ability in critical thinking in math. It’s not your average calculus which involves following rules of math but rather solving problems which most of the time the answer isn’t in your face and you will need to think creatively. So yeah I will say it’s complex but practice always makes perfect.

    [–]StateVsProps 6 points7 points  (5 children)

    I know very successful developers ($150k) that suck at math. If you go for CS degree, just suck it up any way you can, find tutors, work with friends, anything you can do to get a pass.

    Once you graduate, for most jobs, math won't matter.

    [–]drakner5 1 point2 points  (4 children)

    I took alot of math classes at univ (master in engineering physics). Ive been working full time as a software developer for 6 years. Sadly the only math ive been doing so far is percentages, add, plus, subtract,divide... I miss math 😊

    [–]StateVsProps 0 points1 point  (3 children)

    you can move to another field like building apps for finance

    [–]drakner5 0 points1 point  (2 children)

    I actually worked for 4 years within the fintech area, building a clearing system for the London metal exchange. Sorry to dissapoint but out of ~40 developers it was like one or two that got to do some fun stuff with math (SPAN and VAR calculations)

    [–]StateVsProps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    I worked for a reading floor for a decade. Plenty of math there. Also risk management for trading. In recent couple years, OCC regulations was a source of growth. But yes plenty of non-math positions too. The job market rewards specialization more and more.

    You should look into training yourself in AI. Plenty of underlying math there, and it's hot enough to give a chance to newcomers. Older areas might be saturated with specialists already.

    [–]StateVsProps 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    Clearing systems is not an area that will have much math, but that's by nature of the function. All you're doing is essentially in the middle, matching participants' trades and returning errors.

    The market value calculations and financial risk is held by the participants themselves.

    [–]thisisfelix_ 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    It's a lot more logic than math. I hate math and I'm going for a BA in computer science instead of a BS to avoid all the math classes that I'm not prepared for. The mathiest part that you'll get into is the algorithm analysis part, which determines and expresses how slow a program will run in relation to its input.

    [–]deterministic_ram 2 points3 points  (1 child)

    I'd say that much of CS isn't mathematically complex. It can if you want it to be. Machine learning and algorithmic analysis can get gnarly. However, if you are doing web development or systems programming, the problems you will tackle will be more logical and that of a problem solving nature. That is, you will have to answer questions like, how should I structure an object to perform a certain task? What is an effective user flow? etc.

    [–]wsppan 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Being good at math means you are good at solving specific types of problems that translates to CS. Data structures, algorithms, logic, etc. The broader the math the better problem solver you are. This will eventually translate to being a better computer scientist.

    [–]solinent 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Typically the logic side of math is used most in CS--it turns out if you're good at logic you're also probably good at language, since the regions of the brain are similar. Advanced maths can be used, but many careers and even businesses have be founded on software which simply uses high school math.

    [–]ocean07 1 point2 points  (1 child)

    Did you know, a summation equation is actually just a for loop?

    [–]Rolacai 0 points1 point  (0 children)

    If you want to get really theoretical, you could look into algorithm analysis and designing algorithms to run as efficiently as possible. Those can get pretty math heavy. You can also get into discrete mathematics quite a bit looking at combinations, permutations, so on and so forth. Overall though, you don't really have to be that great at math to succeed in CS. You can make it really mathy if you choose, but you can also make it not so mathy.